Culturally Responsive Teaching Fellowship

The Culturally Responsive Teacher Fellowship Program, which operates in conjunction with the second year of the Opportunity Gap Cohort, is focused on providing teachers with exceptional tools, resources, and opportunities.

Educators in this fellowship will come together to build their mindsets, skills, and practices around CRT work, engage in a book study, participate in critical race conversations, and implement best practices in their school at the classroom level. The goal of this fellowship is to provide a community of practice in which teachers build upon their own CRT practices and continue to refine their culturally responsive practices to share with other DPS educators.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Definition and Mindsets

Throughout the 2017-18 school year, the CRE team engaged a variety of educators to define and pilot a district definition of culturally responsive teaching and corresponding mindsets. During the 2018-19 school year, educators in the Culturally Responsive Teaching Fellowship and Growth Through Connections continued to work with these mindsets in their classrooms. Knowledge gained from their experience will inform any revisions to the definition and mindsets.

Equity Based Practices in Mathematics

In partnership with Curriculum & Instruction and Learning Forward, the Professional Learning Teaminvites math teams who have an interest in learning more about how to implement equity-based practices in mathematics through ain a year-long, job-embedded Community of Practice. The intended audience includes 8th, 9th, or 10th-grade math teams interested in exploring the equity-based practices in mathematics to meet 2017-18 DSE goals.

Foundational PDU in CRE

This training is an introductory exploration of culturally responsive teaching practices. We will cover how teachers can begin to meet the needs of diverse learners by building relationships with students and families, creating a caring environment and providing relevant and rigorous content to ALL students. LEAP Framework Indicators include L.E. 1-4, 1.3, P.1, and P.4-P.6. Register now to save your spot in this great professional learning experience!

Growth Through Connections

The Growth Through Connections program goals are to increase student engagement and academic achievement by training and supporting teachers in developing culturally responsive, strong, and healthy relationships with the students they teach. Anchoring discussions and learning in Dr. Christopher Emdin’s book, For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood, Growth Through Connections helps educators build strong relationships with their students and provide them with engaging, culturally relevant learning experiences. Participants identify, unpack and address their biases and other barriers that prevent them from connecting with each student. Teachers then develop strategies to create rigorous, culturally relevant learning experiences that foster a love for learning. School leaders are also involved to ensure sustainability of practices. In addition to training sessions, participants will receive one on one coaching and engage in learning lab site visits.

Opportunity Gap Cohort

The Professional Learning Team (PLT) is committed to its role in making an impact on the Denver Plan 2020. Part of this goal is to close the opportunity gap and provide all students access to educational opportunities that allow them to achieve at the highest levels. The PLT, in collaboration with CELT, offers Opportunity Gap Cohorts focused on peer-to-peer learning for school leadership teams based upon a problem of practice for a targeted group of underserved students.